In Brief: Affymetrix/Molecular Dynamics

Affymetrix/Molecular Dynamics: Companies plan to establish a Genetic Analysis Technology Consortium (GATC) with the aim of providing "a unified technology platform to design, process, read and analyze DNA-arrays of DNA," the firms say. Through GATC, the companies will develop and publish a set of standards that will allow researchers to use uniform reader, data formats and reagents to process arrays made from multiple sources. Firms also sign a non-exclusive license agreement giving Molecular Dynamics rights to Affymetrix technology for commercializing low- and medium-density DNA arrays. The license does not apply to Affymetrix' light-directed synthesis technology, the companies say. Affymetrix will receive royalty payments on products sold by Molecular Dynamics. Affymetrix/ Amersham Pharmacia Biotech: Enter three-year, non-exclusive, worldwide sales and marketing agreement under which Amersham will sell Affymetrix' GeneChip probe arrays, reagents, systems and software...